By: Rich Fisher
The good news is, South Brunswick High has one heck of strong team in the second half.
Don’t you hate when it starts that way? Cos you know, there’s just got to be some bad news.
Alas, there is.
The bad news is, the Vikings’ girls lacrosse team has been sputtering out of the gate, making games more difficult than they have to be. Or, in the case of East Brunswick, leading to the only loss of the season.
"If we can play as hard in the first half as we did in the second, we’d be undefeated," coach Lisa Ripa said. "That’s what happened against East Brunswick, we had a slow start and couldn’t catch back up."
Fortunately for the Vikes, it hasn’t been that way often. Despite their first-half woes, they have been obsessed after halftime and either built on leads or rallied from behind to win.
That was the case last Thursday, in the last game the Vikes played until Wednesday’s tilt with South Plainfield. The Vikings defeated North Brunswick, 17-9, but had to shake the Raiders off like a person shedding gum from their shoe.
"It was pretty crazy in the first half," Ripa said. "We’d score three goals, then they would score three goals. We’d score a goal, then they would score a goal."
The Vikes finally took control with a strong second half. Now, the key is to put two impressive halves together.
"We try to have a positive warm-up, we try to go through all the passing drills, ground ball drills," Ripa said. "It’s just a matter of going out and playing hard after that.
I think they get more motivated in the second half. They want to come out and if they’re behind, get it back, or increase the lead we already have."
One thing that helped the Vikes to their second-half explosion against North Brunswick, was the solid defense played on Raiders’ super scorer Erin Dunne. With her being harnessed, the offense had its chance to shine.
"Our defense has been shutting down some of the bigger scorers," Ripa said. "Before the game I said ‘We all know who Erin Dunne is.’ I told Amy Walters ‘I want you on her every inch of the field.’ And if Amy wasn’t on her, I wanted someone else to pick her up.
She scored two goals, that was it. And she had eight against East Brunswick." Walters and the rest of the defense have been playing improved lacrosse since last year, when it was a fairly new unit trying to jell. Walters, Jackie Helfgott, Lisa Koblin and Krista Davis have anchored the defense, with Kristen Earl and Simone Morris rotating in.
Alex Gaudio is in her second year as goalie and, in a way, has reflected the Vikings patterns.
"She starts off slow sometimes, but when she gets her head in the game she comes up with some really big saves," Ripa said.
"I think overall, the defense has been playing really well. I know in the past, it hasn’t been our team’s strongest point. But we had a lot of experienced defenders coming back and we’ve been working on defense a lot. They’ve been doing an excellent job."
The Vikes had a game with Old Bridge rained out Monday.
"I wanted to play that game so bad," Ripa said. "I could barely remember the last time we played."
The game is being made up today (Thursday).

